Chapter 122

Chapter 122

Chapter 122

Flashes of multi-colored light erupted from the planting rod, and over the course of minutes Riven’s guild hall came into fruition.

After moving around to the front of the building, it was just like the pictures. A large central tower was present over the main entrance where very thick, wooden double doors with enormous ringed knocker handles on the outside. The upper floors on the third level had balconies, each with a stone gargoyle depicted to hold them up on the underside. Metal barred fences of expensive design began encircling not only the garden of beautiful unholy-attuned flowers and chapel in the back with Jose’s tree, but also the slides and the front of the property too. The front contained a courtyard with a gate and a cobblestone road leading out to it, with a lot of empty space inbetween.

“Shall we?” Riven asked with a backwards glance at the others.

Fay picked up Genua’s chain and tugged the collared elf to her feet, winking Riven’s way. “After you, master!”

Riven blatantly ignored the succubus, walked up to the double doors and pushed. They opened with a slight creek at first, but then silently glided to a stop.

Lanterns, not lit by flame - but instead lit by yellow baubles of light - rested on a rather short main hallway leading into the much bigger greeting room that was at least thirty feet tall. On either side of the large, square, mostly empty room were large hallways with red carpets on top of wooden floors. A large spiral staircase with a guardrail was placed in the back-left corner of the greeting room, two large brown leather couches sat facing one another in the middle of the room, and tall glass windows halfway up the wall let in light in addition to the lantern’s magical glow.

Riven clapped his hands and gave a nod of approval. “Not too shabby. Spread out and explore everyone - and meet back in twenty minutes! While you’re at it, pick out a room if you’re living here. Fay and Athela - I think there’s a dungeon here somewhere. Find it and lock Genua up for me.”

“Yessir!” The succubus saluted and bounced on the balls of her feet excitedly, tail flipping merrily around before dragging the elf away in search of a staircase leading downwards.

Genua struggled with failed attempts to pull back, getting smacked hard in the back of the head by Athela and stumbling while becoming outwardly enraged. “You’re just going to dump me underground!?”

“Yup! At least for now anyways. You’ll maybe be given a chance to redeem yourself later.” Riven said with a salute and a wave, just as she was tugged out of sight and into an adjacent hallway by the two demons. “Now... let’s see what this place has to offer.”

The hallway to the right was shorter than the one on the left. Each room they passed was outfitted with very basic feather bedding, a small mirror, a nightstand, a closet, a glass window that had thick wooden shutters which could be locked, and a dresser for clothes. There was a communal toilet in the hall as well, likely to be in every hall by the looks of the layout, which had small power stones with storm-pillar affinities that powered the toilets and sinks.

“Pretty neat.” Riven said while turning the sink on and off again, and flushing the toilet. The toilets were a little different from the ones back home, and didn’t have a back to them. Rather they were just round, wooden bowls one sat on with piping that led elsewhere. “Any idea where the waste goes?”

Dr. Brass shrugged and adjusted his glasses while peering down into the bowl. “Maybe it dumps it all outside, or has a portal of some sort?”

“That’s as good a guess as I could think of. Maybe you’re right. When are you going to ditch the white coat?”

“Hmmm?” The old man looked down at his doctor’s uniform, then laughed. “Oh, this old thing? I think I’ll keep it. Maybe even repair it, the coat reminds me of back home before the world fell apart.”

Riven returned the doctor’s sad smile with a nod. “I get it. You doing ok?”

Dr. Brass slowly held up his hands to either side. “As good as one could get in a situation like this. I think I’ll be more ok whenever you turn me tonight, I’ve been looking forward to it for a while. But... have you thought about my need for blood as well?”

Riven straightened with a confused expression and walked out into the hall with the doctor in tow, stepping out of the way of Azmoth who was checking out a large supply closet with Gurth’Rok. “What do you mean?”

The two men started down the hall again, this time towards the larger door at the very end that was different from all the others - likely leading to something that caused this hallway to be shorter than the opposite one.

“I mean that you have Genua to feed on, but what about me?” Dr. Brass eventually said, stopping in the hallway and turning to meet Riven’s gaze. “I’m going to need someone to feed on regularly too.”

“Oh. That.” Riven gestured out a window in the direction of the fields. “You can go ask around to see if anyone wants to be a thrall. If they don’t, just talk to me and we’ll pick someone for you. It’d be better if they volunteered but one way or the other we’ll get it done.”

“Alright. By the way... I think you should consider talking to The Blood Moon Requiem again.”

Riven paused just as he was about to open the large door at the end of the hall. “What makes you say that?”

Dr. Brass sighed, then came to lean against the wall with his hands in the pockets of his white coat. “Look son. I realize you are angry about what happened-”

“Yeah I’m fucking angry.” Riven glared back at the doctor with an edge to his voice. “We were almost assassinated just two days ago man! Why would I think any other way?”

“Because you’re putting yourself in danger by not doing it.” Dr. Brass said flatly, unflinching as he met the gaze of the much stronger and younger man next to him.

There was a long drawn out silence as the two men stared at one another, and Riven took his hand off the door to match the doctor - putting his hands in his pockets while his staff floated next to him. “Allie told you about the malignancy points, didn’t she?”

Dr. Brass hesitantly nodded. “Yes.”

“She wasn’t supposed to do that.”

“She wanted my opinion, and I think it’s incredibly foolish not to ask.” Dr. Brass lowered his glasses and peered out from over the rims with a knowing gaze. “Just because you’re upset doesn’t mean you should pursue the path of the fool, Riven. After what Athela has said about your bloodline being solely found in the royals of The Blood Moon Requiem, it’s almost a certainty that they’d know more about these ‘malignancy points.’ The very name ‘malignancy’ does not give off good vibes, and accumulating more of them without knowing what they do is sheer stupidity. You may be angry if I say it, but you know it’s true. As indebted as I’ll be after you turn me, changing me and giving me the gift of eternal life when I’m on the precipice of ending this one: I feel like it is my duty to advise you against stupid, irrational ideas guided by emotions. Kathrine wasn’t even the one who tried to kill you and she was nearly off’d as well, so drop the grudge. You don’t have to be friendly with them, but at least use them to make sure whatever is happening isn’t going to harm you.”

Riven simply glared.

“Please.” Dr. Brass stated flatly, keeping their eye contact steady.

***

“Bleed them.”

Athela’s claw superficially slit Genua’s wrist, not enough to do true damage, and the elf woman cried out with a scream of pain. Azmoth held the shackled blonde woman down in her cell as crimson liquid flowed into one of the iron goblets they’d brought from the kitchen.

The other elves that’d been brought in as a recommendation by Gurth’Rok, eight of the newcomers in total, were there because of their absolute unwillingness to work over the past two days. Two of them had been too old, an elderly couple with graying hair, thin skin and fading eyes; while the six others had been young or middle-aged adults who’d refused anything until they got to see their children again.

Riven wasn’t against reuniting them with their children in time, but only after re-education or if the parents allowed themselves to be turned into thralls. None of them wanted the second option.

So they’d ended up as his food supply for the foreseeable future, and were added to the guild hall’s dungeon as its new inhabitants.

One by one the scantily clad men and women of greenstalk were held down, terrified yelps or screams erupting from their lips only to be let up again and have their arms sewn shut by Athela’s red threads. It was painful for each of them, but it also stopped the blood loss completely.

His demons collected the blood person by person until they had enough of it that Riven felt comfortable proceeding with their current agenda: turning Dr. Brass. They’d do it here, in the dungeon, where the captives were behind locked bars and it’d be hard for Dr. Brass to escape if he went into a crazed rage like Riven had done.

“It’s a bit dark down here.” Dr. Brass said, squinting in the dim light of the one lantern that cast shadows from along the wall. “Can’t we do it upstairs?”

Riven’s smile slowly spread, and he shook his head no. “Easier to contain you here. In fact, Athela - tie him down just in case he does what I did. And don’t worry Dr. Brass, it won’t be dark down here for much longer.”

The change would no doubt take care of that.

“EEEEYOOOOO!!!” Allie’s voice echoed down the stairwell and her feet smacking against the stone steps gave Riven pause. Looking left, he saw her slender form hop, skip and jump to the bottom where she whirled on him with a wide smile. “Hey! You weren’t going to begin without me I hope!”

“Not a chance. Did you already move your stuff in?”

“Yup! Well, no not really, but my servants are taking care of it now.” She pointed up at the ceiling where the clambering of feet was still heard, and she grinned widely.

Mara, the female ghoul necromancer, and Vin - one of the skeletal skresh necromancers, followed close behind.

Vin pointed over his shoulder and up the stairway from where he’d just come, shifting in his black robes to lay pale glowing orbs on Riven’s red ones with a bare skull for a head. “My lord, the lady dictated we take up residence on the bottom floor. Does this sit well with you?”

“Take whatever rooms you want, just make sure your undead aren’t trampling the garden outside or breaking any furniture when moving stuff around. We don’t have much of it as it is. And Allie asked about a lab of some sort? Just move the stuff out of an adjacent room and you can set up your alchemy equipment - or use a storage closet.” Riven turned to Allie. “Do you need me to bring in more elves to harvest? Or are you going to be good?”

She shook her head, the smile fading slightly and a look of embarrassment overcoming her as she blushed. “Uh... No, I'm good!”

“She has two thralls.” Mara stated blandly with a yawn, covering her mouth and stretching to expose three wands tucked into a sash at her waist. “Mmm. She won’t be needing any elves, you’ll see for yourself soon enough.”

Ah. Yes. Riven had almost forgotten about the time in the tower when this had been mentioned before. His curious gaze drifted back from Mara to Allie and his sister gave him a guilty smile while pulling the hood over her eyes.

He gave her a skeptical look, crossing his arms as Azmoth set the goblets of blood on a nearby table that a skeleton had brought down and Athela began tying Dr. Brass up with her threads. “Allie... why do you look so guilty?”

“Heh... heh...” She gave him a sheepish laugh. “No reason!”

Mara sighed and pulled back her hood, letting her raven hair flow around her with a shake of her head. “You’ll see them and immediately understand.”

“Understand what? Wait, I thought thralls took a while to create? Don’t they?”

“I was going to KILL them otherwise!” Allie protested with a growl, ignoring Riven’s question and glaring in Mara’s direction with a hiss. “They were crusaders from Prophet’s forces! You can’t blame me!”

“Oh I certainly don’t blame you, my lady. I very much understand.” Mara replied flatly.

Riven blinked in confusion, then his eyebrows lifted when he saw a hulking, bald, handsome, muscular, shirtless beast of a man step down the stairs.

His features were normal. He looked every bit human. But his smell... his smell was off the charts good, and it somehow reminded him of the two men following Kathrine before one of them had exploded.

“My queen.” The husky man said, bowing onto one knee and taking Allie’s hand before kissing it gently. His pale blue eyes looked up at her with admiration, his chiseled features set in an adoring expression, and a perfect white smile escaped his lips while his rippling abdomen caught the light. “I have taken your bed from the tower and placed it in one of the larger rooms on the third floor, so that we may enjoy ourselves at your leisure. Kraig is already awaiting us there.”

Huh?

Riven’s jaw dropped, the goblet in his grip burst as his fist subconsciously tightened, and he nearly spit blood.

Oh, hell no.